Page 15 of Feels Like Coming Home

Cam, though? No, he got jacked and had abs you could wash your clothes on.

Why do men always have it so easy?

Eventually, we ran out of things to do so we headed back to my room and found Piper exactly where we had left her several hours earlier. When she heard me unlock the door, she turned around and moved her large framed reading glasses from her face to the top of her head like an old librarian would do. I always like to tease her about wearing reading classes when she doesn't need to, but she said it helped her retain the information better.

Honestly, she was full of shit and she just liked the way they looked.

“Hey guys, enjoy your outing?” she said, wiggling her eyebrows at us.

I shot her a look as Cam took off his coat and shoes as if to say, ‘Knock it off! You’re embarrassing me!’And she returned one that said‘Your super hot, wanna-be boyfriend is here out of nowhere, you are so not off the hook!’

“Yeah, we did,” I finally replied. “We took the grand tour and I showed him where my classes were and where all the people who pay for their friends live,” I added at the end, taking a stab at Cam’s comment from earlier.

“Huh?” Piper remarked.

“Nothing, we had a good time. Cam ate half the food in the dining hall and I almost threw up watching him do it.”

“Hey, I'm an athlete who needs to eat a very specific way to stay in shape!” Cam shot at me from my bed, where he was now lying.

Oh my god, Cam is lying in my bed. Okay, just play it cool,I told myself but when I looked at Piper, her face said the very same thing. I shot her another look and she motioned her hand toward Cam just small enough so he wouldn’t notice.

Okay, breathe,I told myself, walking toward my bed to sit next to him. There was hardly any space to sit down in our room, the only real options were a desk chair, the floor, and the beds. It wouldn’t be weird if I just sat next to him, would it? Lying down would probably be too much…yeah, definitely too much.

“Sooo, Haley…” Piper started, dragging out the first word as her eyes moved from Cam who was lying next to me, to me. I was sitting straight up on the bed as if someone just affixed a metal rod to my spine. “Are we still on for tonight?”

“What’s tonight?” Cam asked, looking up from his phone that had held his attention during mine and Piper’s silent exchanges. He looked up at me, his head resting on my pillow, and I made a silent pact to myself to never wash it again.

“Oh, it’s nothing!” I brushed off quickly.

“Uhm, excuse me? It’s notnothing,” Piper mocked me. “There’s this huge party tonight at one of the frat houses, everyone is going.”

I looked at my friend as if she had just thrown me under a bus. Cam was here, visiting me for the first time, and she wanted me to go to a party with her?

Absolutely not. No way. Not happening.

“Sounds fun. We should go,” Cam interrupted my thoughts.

“You wanna go?” My head whipped around to look at him in disbelief. I didn’t have any plans for the rest of the day, but spending it in a hot and sweaty frat house was not something I was interested in doing with Cam here.

“Yeah, it sounds like fun. I’m sure it’s not like any of the parties where I go, but I’m sure a small school party would still make for a good time. I think I’d like to see what you’re like at a party, Jones.” He was sitting up now and looking at me, a cocky grin on his face. My insides started to melt.

Piper squealed from her seat, happy that Cam was down to go because now it meant I couldn’t back out. “Oh my gosh, this is going to be SO FUN! Okay, I just need to finish this chapter, and then…”

She continued talking but my focus was on the fact that Cam—my Cam, the Cam I had hoped for so long would end up spending a weekend with me—was here and doing just that.

And we were going to spend the night at a house party.

Maybe I had gotten the wrong vibe from his comment earlier about wanting to see me and he was just here for a good time. Whether I had or not, my heart squeezed in my chest because once again, I felt like I wasn’t the one Cam wanted to spend his time with.

We were walkingup the front steps of the house when the guy at the door asked for our student ID’s. This was the not-at-all-foolproof way frat houses made sure that only students came inside the party and undercover cops did not. I was hoping that Cam’s lack of ID would mean they wouldn’t let him in and we would have to leave. Unfortunately for me, when Cam told the student doorman his name, the guy’s face lit up because he had seen the replay of Cam’s touchdown catch that ESPN had been playing as their highlight of the week and let him in without an issue.

Once inside, Piper whispered something in my ear about finding the guy from her ethics class and walked down a long hallway on her own. I smiled awkwardly at Cam and led him further into the house, waving at people I knew as we navigated the dark hallways, our shoes sticking to the floor every so often. Eventually, we made it to a room that didn’t have music blaring from giant speakers mounted to the walls and found an unoccupied corner to stand in.

“So this is a small-town college party, huh?” Cam asked with a cocky grin.

“Yep, this is it.” Normally I liked coming to parties on the weekend, but with Cam, it felt weird.

“Do they serve anything at these parties or is everyone here drinking lemonade out of those red plastic cups?” He leaned close to my ear so I could hear. I could hardly focus on his question because when he leaned in, his lips brushed my ear and my brain went fuzzy.

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